Eugene’s conception of the Missionaries was that they had to be an elite group at the service of the Church. He was not being snobbish (“better-than-thou”) in saying this, but wanted to underline that their vocation was to be specialists in the renewal of the Church. They thus had a responsibility to strive to be the best possible instruments through the quality of their personal and community lives: “be” in order to “do”.
The young men in formation crossed the city each day to go to the diocesan seminary each day for classes:
I quite insist that all give a good example at the seminary…
They ought not to forget that we are a Congregation of regular clerics [ed. priests who live, pray and minister in community], that we ought in consequence to be more fervent than simple seminarians,
that we are called to replace in the Church the piety and all the virtues of the religious Orders…
They ought to be more holy than the pupils of the Fathers of the Retreat [ed. a teaching order] who have only their own sanctification to think of while ours must make provision thereof doubly, both for themselves and for those whom they will have to lead to the knowledge of the true God and to the practice of virtue.
The model that Eugene gives for this formation process is:
that all their actions ought to be done with the dispositions in which the apostles were when they were in the Cenacle waiting for the Holy Spirit to come and enflame them with his love and give them the signal to go forth swiftly and conquer the world, etc.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 4 November 1817, O.W. VI n. 29
This is the model that Eugene wanted for the formation process of every person wanting to become a Missionary: be moulded to having the same attitude as the apostles so that the Holy Spirit be the real Formator.